Thread: Succubus's, friends, responsibility.. YARRRGH

OK, so I'll start off this rant with some good news. I recently got a promotion at my job. I work at an Internet Service Provider as a technical support agent, and have been promoted to lead tech.

The bad news is I got promoted above my 2 friends who have been working there twice as long as I and GOT me the job there. Needless to say, they were pretty upset about that. One got real angry, one, whom we will refer to as Bill, seemed upset but forced himself to be courteous and congragulate me, which I know was hard.

Soooo I'm in a meeting with The current manager and lead tech (basically supervisor) going over what the departments goals will be during this tranisiton and the next year. (The manager is going elsewhere in the company, and the lead tech is becoming the manager, I am filling his spot. The third point on the list of things to do? Fire bill. Greaaaat.

The way these firings go down in my department is we first hire someone, train them, and then fire the person they are replacing. That's why whenever someone gets hired, people get nervous. However we are in the middle of a company restructuring and no one believes this person is being hired to replace anybody.

Now.. to Bill. When I got hired (thanks to Bill and my other friend), Bill was the ALLSTAR of our department. Full of knowledge, efficient troubleshooting, and incredible with the customers. Then.. he started dating a succubus. This girl is a raging alchoholic and partier and has turned him into just as big of a drinker. They drink EVERY day. He brags about how he can drink so much vodka like its water.

He comes in late every shift now, sometimes half an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. And these are shifts where sometimes he is the only person coming in, so the person working before him HAS to stay. (Due to contracts and the nature of our business, we absolutely HAVE to have a support technician in the office 24/7, 365.) He has had 3 or 4 no call no shows in the last 9 months or so. He sometimes leaves early or comes in late and clocks in/out remotely (which my manager recently caught him doing, and was the final blow). The only reason they have kept him this long is because he was really good, and we haven't had enough people to let him go and remain steady (we had to let some techs go due to fiscal reasons, our company is on its way back up though and now can afford to hire and train new people). Anywhere else he would have been fired eons ago, but now he seems to just think he's invincible.

Sooo I have to fire him. He and my other buddy were already mad at me for getting the position, not telling them i was going to get it (which I was specifically told not to because it had to do with a partial restructuring of the company which they wanted to release in a big company meeting [which occured on friday]). He's gonna be angry about it, although I dont know how he could possibly blame anybody but himself. He's gonna be angry at me though, for not giving him a heads up.

If he had any chance of salvaging his job at this point in time, I probably would help him out. However he stands absolutely no chance. If i were to give him a heads up, he would most likely stop caring at all, not work when he's here, etc. Which means my manager would realize I told him, and I would (I have been pre-informed of this) get fired. So I know I can't tell him.

The worst part is that he is about to drop a bunch of money onto a vacation for the end of february or somewhere right around there...

And this is ALL due to this succubus of a girlfriend of his. She is destroying his life. He actually realized it (thanks to some coaching) a few months ago and broke up with her. His life instantly started to improve, by his own admittance. Then SOMEHOW (hot asian girl powers) they got back together. Right away its back to the nonstop drinking and partying (I'm all about having a good time, but we're past the age where you can just drink every day. At least do so and have a career.) I want to just sit him down and be like HEY.. YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET FIRED, PUT DOWN THE BOTTLE AND GET YOURSELF TOGETHER. But it doesn't matter. There have been multiple times in the last 9 months where he's realized how bad he's fucking up at work, talked with the manager, promised he was going to get better. He shows up on time for a few weeks, etc, then falls right back into it.

It just basically sucks because when he gets fired its going to be me and the manager doing it and I will most likely lose him as a friend (I hope he has the sense to realize that he has completely done this to himself and that I couldn't say anything because I am not gonna put my job on the line). I kind of feel like I SHOULD say something, but I know I can't. Gotta look out for #1. It just sucks... I can't enjoy the promotion with this shit going on.

/end rant

Cliff notes: Friend got me job. He was an awesome employee, started dating succubus alchoholic, coming in late, multiple no call no shows, we couldn't fire him due to lack of manpower, now we have the manpower. I am being promoted and one of my first duties is gonna be to fire him. He's probably going to hate me and this sucks.

Why don't you talk to him as a friend, man to man, and give him some advice. TELL him that you're gonna have to fire him if he doesn't actually clean up his act this time.

BTW, I have this friend who teaches anthropology in the university of my town. He's got this crazy obsession about me being a succubus and wants to drag me into his lecture in a "show and tell" kind of way. Apparently I'll even get paid if I do that. Weird.

Edit add: Ohh crap I just realised my advice is like, 9 months late. Ah. Well. What happened?